Wednesday 22 February 2012

Penny Black, Winterford Road

Possible location of Penny Black, , Cheetham Hill. (c) Google 2012. View Larger Map.

This pub-shaped little car park on the corner of Levenhurst Road and Winterford Road, behind the Post Office delivery depot, may be the remains of one of Manchester's more infamous pubs, the Penny Black. The name fits the location but there are no photos of the pub standing to confirm - the building behind may also be the old boozer.  The Penny Black was part-owned by Derek Noonan of the notroious Irish-Mancunian crime family, and it made the news in February 1991 when local gang-leader 'White' Tony Johnson was executed outside the pub. Derek, and his brothers Desmond and Damian were all cleared of the murder, but it seems like the Penny Black was closed and torched soon after the murder.

Possible location of Penny Black, , Cheetham Hill. (c) Google 2012. View Larger Map.

An Independent article from 20 years ago described the court proceedings:  "An 'execution squad' led by a man in a wheelchair shot two men after cornering them in a pub car park, a jury was told yesterday... Michael Shorrock QC, for the prosecution, said the two victims were attacked after they drove into the car park of the Penny Black pub in Cheetham, Manchester [1]."  To quote Mikey AKA Gene Hunt at flickr: "this side of Cheetham Hill is known as the Waterloo Estate, where in the 1980s and 1990s the Cheetham Hillbillies, a gang that operated in the area and specialised in blags, pushing drugs in clubs and violence ect., all originated from [2]."  

2. www.flickr.com/photos/raver_mikey/5922761244.
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8 comments:

  1. Anonymous6 September 2012 at 21:47

    The former Penny Black is the building in the second photo. It was built in 1978 on vacant land (the area had been terraced housing prior to this but all properties were served with compulsory purchase orders in 1976 to facilitate the council building new housing). The pub closed in 1991 and the following year it became a day nursery. The nursery was vacated in 2000 and it became a mosque.

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  2. Anonymous20 June 2013 at 14:36

    Last time I went past the Penny Black it had no roof and looked derelict, that would have been around 1995. Used to drink there in the early 80s.

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  3. Anonymous4 July 2013 at 18:05

    does any one no wayne willis or williams who used to drink in there

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  4. Anonymous22 January 2015 at 13:32

    It is now "Al Sunnah Mosque"

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  5. Anonymous2 January 2019 at 21:09

    I heard it was rough but these things are usually exaggerated and as a stranger i wouldn't drink in there

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  6. Anonymous22 August 2021 at 18:32

    I knew a wayne williams who used to go in there, i used to go in there a lot in the early 80s

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  7. Anonymous7 November 2022 at 04:21

    Wayne well last I heard he had moved near whitefield on the hillock estate

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  8. Anonymous29 October 2023 at 14:57

    Where was the car park of the pub?

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